NORFOLK COMMUNITY HEALTH & CARE NHS TRUST

A MODERN MULTIFUNCTION DEVICE ESTATE SUPPORTING VITAL NHS CARE SERVICES

Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust reduces costs and supports the mobile workforce with innovative HP multifunction devices. Every day, Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) strives to provide excellent patient care in a time of severely squeezed public sector budgets.

  • Industry
    Healthcare Services

    Objective
    Replace their 86 legacy refurbished printers with modern multifunction devices (MFDs) that meet the needs and expectations of today’s users 

    IT matters
    To enhance the MFD functionality and capability, the ease of deployment of the devices and to provide pro-active maintenance

  • Approach
    EU-wide tender in line with NHS procurement rules

    Business matters
    To ensure the best value for money for taxpayers, a more cost-effective MFD estate and support the needs of a mobile workforce

The Challenge

Serving a population of nearly 900,000 people in Norfolk, the Trust’s aim is to constantly improve patients’ lives by providing them with the best care, close to where they live. In practice, this means its clinical staff are based across 40 sites throughout the county, with a large mobile workforce of approximately 1,750 community nurses and care workers visiting patients in their homes.

It’s a high-pressure job, and one that can easily become even more stressful if the supporting technology infrastructure goes wrong. Printer malfunctions can be a huge source of stress for time-pressured clinical staff, so when NCH&C was nearing the end of two printer leasing contracts, it wanted to ensure the new contract was awarded to a Managed Print Service provider that could support its aims.

  • Lots of companies provide printer leasing and maintenance, but DTP’s bid was very personable. It felt like we weren’t just a number in their system, but an integral part of what they were doing. What they were proposing felt like a partnership rather than a contract.

    Steve Worley, NCH&C Interim Head of Procurement
The Approach

With DTP engaged for the new contract, the rollout could begin. The Trust presented quite a challenge in that respect, because of the way its 40 sites are dispersed across Norfolk and Suffolk.

DTP tackled the problem with ingenuity and enthusiasm, setting up a temporary warehouse in Norwich and co-ordinating the installation from there, over a period of just three weeks. It was a new approach for DTP, but working in partnership with NCH&C meant it all went smoothly.

Since NCH&C has been up and running with the new HP devices, the improvements have been remarkable. Staff report that the new devices are much more user-friendly, with touchscreen technology they’re familiar with from smartphones and tablets.

  • We were looking through the performance data, and our account manager told us an issue had arisen with one device, but they’d been able to fix it before anyone noticed. Now we know that printer breakdowns are something we don’t have to worry about.

    Steve Worley, NCH&C Interim Head of Procurement
HP Managed Print

A key aspect of the DTP service for NCH&C is proactive maintenance through HP Smart Device Service. The HP devices monitor device health, predict failures and provide service recommendations to help ensure the devices don’t stop working. This means breakdowns can be anticipated before they happen, and DTP can take appropriate action.

Steve says the Trust has already seen the benefits of HP Smart Device Service, which surfaced in a quarterly review meeting with DTP.

 

  • Replacing the entire printer estate is a big change, affecting a high percentage of our workforce. It could have been a nightmare. But because DTP discussed everything with us – even taking us to visit HP’s Customer Welcome Centre and one of DTP’s long-standing customers, King’s College London -to see the new devices we’d be getting – there were never any unpleasant surprises. We got to a stable position very quickly, and now it’s all about what we can do to capitalise even further on the new technology.

    Steve Worley, NCH&C Interim Head of Procurement

With DTP on board as its Managed Print Service partner, the Trust has gained much more than a cost-effective contract. NCH&C and DTP will now work together to ensure the Trust can use emerging functionality to help its workforce provide the best care to patients.

For more information about the capabilities of HP print solutions, or for a chat about your current environment, please call us on 0113 276 0210 or email newbusinesssales@dtpgroup.co.uk.

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